These are nasty little things that can make us sick or infect open wounds.
The word ‘bacteria’ is the plural of another Latin word bacterium—although it is hard to imagine it ever being used in the singular, since these little things always swarm in large numbers.
We need to think of ‘bacteria’ as gangs rather than individuals.
There was a time when this word was on the ‘popular’ list of the Merriam-Webster lexicographers because it had become one of the most looked-up words on their website.
And the reason for all that looking was rather disturbing.
When it comes to ‘bacteria’ you would expect that cleaning products do the job of getting rid of them.
So, what would you think of a cleaning product that instead of getting rid of bacteria was full of them?
Not much, I would think.
The New York Times had a report (from a journalist named Christine Chung) saying that: ‘Clorox (and I presume that’s the name of the American cleaning product in question) is voluntarily recalling about 37 million bottles of pine scented Pine-Sol because the cleaning products may contain bacteria that can cause serious infections in people with weakened immune systems, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said.’
It’s one of those odd news stories that leave you scratching your head.
If this was a cleaning product, filled with strong cleaning chemicals, how did any bacteria—once they got in there—survive?
Why didn't they just curl up their little toes and die?
Why didn’t the chemicals kill off the bacteria?
Instead of which these little bacteria seem to have been swimming around in the stuff having the time of their little lives.
Puzzling.
Tonight I will join Peta Credlin on News24 (formerly Sky News) for 'Words Matter.'
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* My latest book is called Pray Like This. To look at prayer I do what I do in these Ozword columns: I go through the most famous prayer in the world (The Lord’s Prayer, also known as the Our Father) and unpack it word by word—each chapter being a short word-study on a key word in that prayer. There is a total of 21 words studies in all. To find out more, here’s a link to the publisher’s website (where you can buy a copy if you wish): Pray Like This – matthiasmedia.com.au
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BY THE WAY...
If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang, you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic
The liveliest part of this website is usually the Q and A page -- be sure to check it out from time to time.
